{"id":123013,"date":"2014-09-01T14:50:34","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T18:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?p=123013"},"modified":"2014-09-02T08:33:52","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T12:33:52","slug":"commentary-bitcoin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/commentary-bitcoin\/","title":{"rendered":"COMMENTARY: What is Bitcoin?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Adella
Adella Toulon-Foerster, LLM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bitcoin is a new online system for people who want to receive, hold, and spend money. It’s somewhat similar to online banking systems, and especially similar to PayPal in how you can use it. Because it’s all online, it’s especially easy to use with smartphones and is becoming one of the drivers of the emerging worldwide trend of mobile commerce.<\/p>\n

PayPal, credit cards, and bank accounts all use familiar currencies, like E.C. dollars, pound sterling, and the like. One special aspect to Bitcoin is that it is its own currency, with a value that can go up and down. If you travel often to Guadeloupe, you’ll notice that sometimes you’ll get more Euros for your E.C. dollars, and sometimes you’ll get fewer. It’s the same with Bitcoin.<\/p>\n

In that sense Bitcoin is its own currency, one made specifically for the Internet. But unlike other currencies, Bitcoin isn’t issued by a central bank or other agency of any government. New Bitcoins are made when someone participating in the Bitcoin system lets their computer do enough of the hard work required to keep the system as whole running smoothly. Because a lot of people participate, this means that the work is spread out across the world, which is good for overall efficiency and means that it would be very difficult to bring the system down.<\/p>\n

The maths that underlie the Bitcoin system are very complex, but they prevent problems like someone spending the same money twice or somehow taking control of the system and changing the amounts in people’s accounts. The underlying mathematics also place a cap on the number of Bitcoins that can ever be produced, so unlike government currencies such as the Jamaican dollar that can lose value when too many are printed, the value of Bitcoin cannot be stolen away through overproduction.<\/p>\n

In a sense, the creators of Bitcoin have solved a very big problem when it comes to financial systems. With government systems, you must trust that government officials and regulators are doing a good job to look after your interests. With Bitcoin, the maths behind the system prevent corruption: you can break the laws of men, but you cannot break the laws of mathematics.<\/p>\n

Some people claim that Bitcoin is dangerous, useful to criminals, or otherwise harmful. Like any other kind of money, Bitcoin can be used for good or ill. There have been businesses which use Bitcoin that have gone bankrupt, and there was one widely reported case where Bitcoin was being used in an online marketplace for illegal goods. But just as we don’t say that U.S. dollars are bad because they can be used for crime, neither should we say that Bitcoin is bad because a few bad people have misused it. And many governments around the world seem to agree, for example the U.S. government has held hearings on Bitcoin and concluded that it is acceptable, issuing regulations governing its use in that country.<\/p>\n

It’s worth noting that while Bitcoin is getting a lot of attention in Dominica, we’re not the first developing country where there are initiatives happening to promote its use. In Kenya, East Africa, a service called Bitpesa allows people in that country to receive money directly on their smartphones from relatives who live elsewhere, such as the UK. Closer to home, entrepreneurs in Barbados are setting up a Bitcoin exchange there called Caribcoin.com.<\/p>\n

Even so, it’s a fair question to ask whether Bitcoin is a good fit for Dominica. It seems unlikely that we’ll all stop using E.C. dollars anytime soon, but might Bitcoin be a good addition to our society’s collection of financial tools? It seems most likely that some people and businesses in Dominica will have more to gain from considering Bitcoin than others, particularly those in three categories.<\/p>\n

Firstly, companies that engage in a lot of international trade may be the most interested, since Bitcoin transactions are essentially free and clear within minutes, unlike any other means of international transaction.<\/p>\n

Secondly, it might also be of interest to those in our tourism industry, as those foreigners who like Bitcoin may consider us as a destination over other countries if they know that Bitcoin is widely accepted here.<\/p>\n

Finally, Bitcoin can be useful for foreign remittances, meaning anyone who receives money from relatives who live and work abroad.<\/p>\n

But will we see people whipping out their smartphones to use Bitcoin at the market on Saturday mornings, or to make it easy to split the cheque at Fort Young? Only time will tell.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, there is a great deal of information available online about Bitcoin from many sources.<\/p>\n

Make your own decision!<\/p>\n

Adella Toulon-Foerster is a Dominican who attended the Convent High School and the Dominica State College. She was further educated at the Nottingham Law School in the UK and completed her legal studies at the George Washington University School of Law in Washington DC with a Master of Laws in Business and Finance Law. Her thesis \u201cBitcoin: Strength in Numbers\u201d was on the cryptocurrency’s legal impact on banking.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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